Job Discussion Forums

[joshua2004]

Hello,
I am looking for work in an international school or other top k-12 school system in Japan. Can you name a school which is "the best of the best" in Japan? Location of the school is not important as I am able to travel to any area.

Thanks,

Josh

[PAULH]

[Sherri]

If I still lived in Tokyo AND had the money, I would choose Nishimachi.

http://www.nishimachi.ac.jp/

It has a very good reputation.
Best
Sherri

[joshua2004]

Thanks a lot.
I emailed one of the schools posted and got an auto-reply. Seems like these schools get lots of interest. I have my teaching license and a masters, but it seems like it might be hard to get noticed. Any ideas?

[PAULH]

[abufletcher]

I would imagine that jobs as these top school are highly competetive with hundreds of applicants for each announced position. I would further imagine that they could pick and choose among candidates with a valid current K-12 teaching certificate, an MA, AND several years of K-12 subject matter teaching experience either in the US or at a recogized American curriculum international school abroad.

I would think that getting one of these positions is MUCH more difficult than landing a university teaching position in Japan.

BTW, what and where are you teaching now in Mexico?

[joshua2004]

I am currently teaching English at an ITESM (Tec de Monterrey) middle school. And I will be coordinating the English department next year. I am located almost in the middle of Mexico, Torreon, Coahuila.

ITESM is regarded as one of, if not, the best school systems in Mexico. Working here is a night and day difference to working at other schools I have visited or worked at in Mexico. I am ecstatic that I have my own office, a laser printer, water cooler, and all the office/teaching supplies I need at my close disposal.

Having worked at schools that just because of their tight economic situations, can't provide a professional working environment, I found I still put just as much effort into my job where I am at now. So why not work for the best?

[abufletcher]

Joshua, prior to taking my current position at a university in Shikoku, Japan, I was teaching at ITESM Campus Guadalajara. As you say, the TEC, both the university level campuses and their feeder school system, are considered to be among the best schools in Mexico and the typical students represent an elite of Mexican society. In my classes at least a third of my students had one or more grandparents who were born in Europe (Spain, Switzerland, England, etc.) and many took regular family vacations and did homestays in the US and/or Canada. Each year Yale and Harvard send recruiters down to the ITESM campuses and ITESM has as a stated goal that students will achieve a 550 TOEFL level upon graduation. In this respect, I think you can expect that your teaching experience in Mexico should be a valuable addition to your CV (if written up well).

That having been said I don't know whether the ITESM-affiliated secondary schools actually teach an American accredited curriculum or require their teachers to have valid American teaching credentials. Maybe you can fill us in on this point.

Also I have to say that I didn't find my teaching at ITESM Campus Guadalajara nearly as comfortable as you are finding your situation. All the English teachers (all with MA's in TESOL or Linguistics) were stuck in one small common room (with desk space and cupboard) and 4 shared computers. While the facilities were clean and new (and lunch at the cafeteria was fantastic) it was a very corporate environment and run much more like a business than a university. All in all I found the work environment to be extremely stressful -- but then the Guadalajara Campus regularly scored quite low on yearly "sfaff satisfaction" surveys. I was earning a good salary by Mexican standards but my salary increased nearly seven-fold when I moved to Japan.

I think International Schools here in Japan are probably much more interesting in hiring subject area specialists than EFL teachers, i.e. they need someone who can be teaching 8 grade math or science or a multi-subject elementary school classroom, for example. So if you can market yourself as a subject area specialist who can ALSO do EFL you'll have a better chance.

[joshua2004]

I have friends whom teach at the university and high school here and they also have a different experience than me. Their experience sounds similar to what yours was. Who knows why?

Thanks a lot for your solid advice. At heart, I am a multiple subjects teacher. This is why I choose elementary for my license.

I really liked your advice in regards to making my experience here worth it by reflecting it well on my CV. I am writing down all of my duties/responsibilities that come my way so that I can show what work I am doing to the administration. But I didn�t think about how this could be applied to my CV, Thanks!

[abufletcher]

[abufletcher]

BTW, I've also been on search committees both here in Japan and in the Sultanate of Oman and I can tell you that at least half the CVs that come our way are simply atrocious. Poor spelling, blatant grammar errors (such as "teachers whom"), horrible (unprofessional) layout, missing information, too much information, and stylistically uncomfortable English.

Anyone who thinks these things don't matter to employers at top schools is seriously kidding themselves (<-- Scratch that. It should be "kidding oneself" -- or better yet rewritten as "People who think...")

[joshua2004]

Yes, thank you. I know you are not trying to criticize my post, but emphasizing the fact that even informal correspondence to these schools could give a bad impression if it is not grammatically correct.

Thanks for your advice! Anything else you have to say please don't hesitate to post it or send to me. I have my sights set on an international school in Japan, and thus know that I will get there sooner or later. But sooner the better!

[abufletcher]

Joshua, I'm glad you could take my comments in the spirit in which they were intended. People, including me, tend to type rather fast and free on internet forums like this one and I usually don't like the self-appointed grammar critics that (<-- opps I mean "who") invariably show up.

PaulH and some of the others here can probably give you far more factual information about schools here in Japan. I did talk to some people at the Canadian Academy (one fo the best in Japan) several years ago about the possbility of working for them for the sole reason that my kids would then be able to attend for free. The impression I got from them was that they could really recruit from a pool of very experienced teachers who had spent years teaching in US schools.

You might have to set your sights on a more mid-range International School here in Japan since teaching in Japan seems to appeal to a greater number of people than teaching in the Middle East or even other Asian countries like China or Korean.

BTW, check out this guy's blog on his life as an international school teacher in China. He mentions in his blog that his school is looking for more certified teachers.

http://chinalife.typepad.com/

[johanne]

Hi Joshua,

I'm currently working at an international school in Japan, teaching Grade 1. Most schools hire in January or Febuary to start the following September. I have a teaching certificate and a BEd and taught elementary school in Vancouver for 4 years and before that taught ESL in Japan for 4 years. The ESL experience was basically thrown out by all schools. With that background, I wrote directly to 15 international schools in and around Tokyo, saying I would be in Japan in January and would like to meet with them about any elementary homeroom teaching positions. I later followed up with e-mails. 3 schools told me straight out I wasn't qualified and 5 set up interview times with me. The 7 others completely ignored by application. Of the 5 interviews 3 offered me positions, although one was a kindergarten and not a true "international school" as such, although most of their students were English speaking non-Japanese. If you'd like some details about working conditions, salaries, etc.(which vary quite a bit between schools), feel free to PM me.

[PAULH]

I have been posting on Gaijin pot and there is some lady (Jody) on there who is the main foreign/head teacher at an "international kindergarten" in Maebashi in Gunma. There are the internationally accredited schools like the ASJ and Canadian Academy, who are regularly checked and vetted by WASC, and whose graduates go on to high schools back home and universities, and there are the other schools who call themselves "international" but simply have mixed rolls of foreign and Japanese kids in a kind of immersion learning. These schools i think may be easier to get into so you can get your feet wet, and then work your way up to the big boys. You may be trying to take on too much or applying above your station unless you have proper teaching experience back home or in Japan. ESL is not even considered teaching in the minds of international schools and will be discounted outright.

For a list of schools go to

http://www.tokyowithkids.com

I only have IS experience as a parent, as my daughter attended the school in Kyoto for four years.